Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chair for the municipal year 2024/25.

RESOLVED that Councillor Megan Wright be appointed Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board for the municipal year 2024/25

RESOLVED that Nicola Airey be appointed Vice-Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board for the municipal year 2024/25

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Any Member with an affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

Andrew Hunter declared an interest in Item 9, New Skimped Hill Development, as he sat on the planning authority considering the live planning application.

There were no Urgent Items of Business.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 14 March 2024 were approved as a correct record, subject to a typo under Minute 40 being corrected.

There were no matters arising.

QUESTIONS: If you would like to ask a question you must arrive 15 minutes before the start of the meeting to provide the clerk with your name, address and the question you would like to ask. Alternatively, you can provide this information by email to the clerk at committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk at least two hours ahead of a meeting. The subject matter of questions must relate to an item on the Board’s agenda for that particular meeting. The clerk can provide advice on this where requested.

PETITIONS: A petition must be submitted a minimum of seven working days before a Board meeting and must be given to the clerk by this deadline. There must be a minimum of ten signatures for a petition to be submitted to the Board. The subject matter of a petition must be about something that is within the Board’s responsibilities. This includes matters of interest to the Board as a key stakeholder in improving the health and wellbeing of communities.

There had been no applications for any public participation.

To receive an update on the Bracknell Forest Centre for Health.

Jane Batty, Frimley ICB presented on the plans for the new Bracknell Forest Centre for Health at the Skimped Hill site.

The plans for the centre had been developed in response to population growth in Bracknell Forest, and the need to greater integrate health care services to deliver services for patients’ in a shared space.

The proposed Skimped Hill development site combined the existing Skimped Hill site and the neighbouring brownfield site to create a new build. The new site would house predominantly clinical services which were already delivered from the Skimped Hill site, but would also bring in Berkshire Healthcare services to create a centralised point of NHS services. The build would also allow administrative staff to sit alongside the clinical services they supported.

The funding was being finalised by the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England and was progressing swiftly, although final sign off would be subject to planning approval being granted and a contract being agreed with a building contractor.

Jane shared the architects’ drawings and proposed floor plans for the site.

It was noted that access and parking was a challenge at the existing Skimped Hill site due to lack of parking management and people using the car park for non-NHS visits. Parking management was being established at the site now to address this problem.

It was hoped that subject to planning permission being granted, the site would be completed in March 2025 for a Spring 2025 opening.

In response to questions, the following points were noted:

·        It was commented that access to the site needed to be improved via public transport.

·        The consultation rooms had been designed to meet the recommended size, and accessibility had been key in the development of the site. The parking space arrangement would be changed to move disabled parking spaces closer to the site entrance.

·        While this particular building had not been built with disaster / pandemic preparedness in mind as it was not intended to be used as a Nightingale hospital, the pandemic had had an impact in the building’s design to ensure that the spaces could continue to be used during a pandemic, for example including separate entrance and exit points.

·        Board members welcomed the opportunity for more preventative and primary care services to be co-located, for example opportunities to deliver more sexual health services in Bracknell Forest so that residents did not have to travel to sites further afield.

Board members thanked Jane for her update.

To receive an update on the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, Priority 3: Social Isolation

Heema Shukla led a deep-dive on the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, Priority 3: Social Isolation.

This priority had highlighted a group of residents who were theoretically happy to connect and were not housebound, but who had not joined with any social activities.

One action under this priority was Red, around the suicide prevention and self-harm toolkit. Heema reassured partners that the suicide prevention strategy had progressed, and the next step would be to develop a related toolkit which had been delayed to next year.

Phil Bell, Involve had been leading on this Priority and spoke about the work undertaken to target those most vulnerable to social isolation and loneliness. There had been an increase in the number of services and groups available to isolated people, and the Community Map had grown by 10 assets in the last quarter alone. Partnerships had been built between organisations and groups working together to address social isolation, including a Friendship Ambassador role and the Friendship Tables model to build social spaces in communities.

The Green and Active scheme had been running for 18 months and had surpassed expectation on growth with 650 hours logged per quarter. The programme had positively targeted people who are associated with social isolation and loneliness. Surveys had shown significant improvements to participants’ physical and mental health.

The Community Map continued to be developed, including engaging with People Power to address the barriers faced by people with disabilities when using the map.

Emma Priestly, Behavioural Insight officer in the Public Health team and Social Prescriber gave an insight into social prescribing work in Bracknell Forest. There had been a trend of people who were happy to talk on the phone and with home visits, but who were reluctant to go out to socialise despite practical support with travel arrangements. Following a survey with clients, it became clear that the biggest barrier to engagement was motivation, particularly amongst older adults for whom travel and sitting down for a long time could be painful. There was also a strong theme of social anxiety, with some clients who had experienced an unwelcoming environment at a community group before which had put them off trying again.

In response to questions, the following points were noted:

·        Social prescribers worked with clients for 3 months typically, with the option to extend the programme to 6 months if necessary. It was noted that social prescribers also worked support clients with issues around finance and housing as well as social isolation and loneliness. 

·        It was commented more could be done to ensure that social prescribers from each partner organisation were seen to be working as one team, and to build on the strengths of each team.

·        It was queried how people using the Friendship Tables could progress into accessing an asset on the community map, and how relationships started on Friendship Tables could develop into an ongoing community activity.

·        Clients accessing the social prescribing service tended to be white British residents. Work was ongoing with faith communities and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

To present the findings from the evaluation which have been shared with the Bracknell Forest Physical activity forum.

Heema Shukla introduced Professor Katya Mileva, from London South Bank University who presented the findings from the review of the Health and Wellbeing Exercise Referral programme which had been delivered in collaboration with Everyone Active.

Evaluators had begun with a desk-based exercise to map the physical activity network in Bracknell Forest and to understand whether or not the network was functioning well. The exercise had demonstrated a well-developed and wide system of people involved in the physical activity network, but a complex system with few links between poorly marketed physical activity services. Of those who were referred, 80% engaged with the service but did not remain engaged sufficient to see significant health benefits. 

Of the total services users, 69% had been signposted from primary care networks and 11% had been signposted from acute hospital trusts. Very few of the patients referred had complex health needs, and had mostly been referred because of a singular health condition or their mental health. This demonstrated a lack of confidence in referring complex individuals into the service.

It was noted that while the offer of free or subsidised leisure services did remove a barrier for clients, it also meant that the service was restricted to services provided within the leisure centre and opportunities outside of this had not been available as intended.

In conclusion, evaluators saw the value in continuing the service but in order to be successful, the service should continue as part of a much wider offer. Better marketing of leisure services would help engagement. The referral and communication process could also be improved, with a feedback loop between prescribers and deliverer. The scheme also needed to employ more diverse skills and competencies in order to raise confidence in adjusting the scheme to address specific health conditions.

In response to questions, the following points were noted:

·        It was recognised that public health resources and green space work could be more closely aligned.

·        The clients referred into the service were often addressing complex life situations with real barriers in accessing the service which needed to be acknowledged. The extended duration of the programme was a key factor in maintaining clients’ attendance, as participants did not have to leave the programme if they had a period of absence from it.

·        A health coach role had been funded for a three year programme, and this period would give a better indication of how the service could be best taken forward. The evaluation outcomes would assist in decision making for an ongoing service.

·       It was noted that while only 15 people had completed the full recommended number of attendances on the programme, more than 60% had still engaged with the programme through its duration.

To receive headline updates on the new ICB structure.

Nicola Airey, Frimley ICB advised on the ICB restructure which was ongoing.

Nicola had been appointed to the Director post which held oversight for all five Places. Associate Directors had been appointed for East Berkshire and Hampshire, Surrey Heath and Farnham.

A governance workshop between senior directors across the ICB and the Council was scheduled to start the co-design process of governance going forward.

The Board congratulated Nicola on her new appointment and agreed to invite the Associate Director responsible for East Berkshire to their next meeting.

There were no items of business.